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Flexing your mussel

Before you call the typo police, we are talking mussels, not muscles. Researchers at Purdue University have developed an adhesive that is based upon the same stuff that mussels use to stay stuck to wooden poles, rocks and other places that mussels like to hang out. They claim the synthetic mussel-based glue is 10 times stronger than commercial glues. These researchers studied the components of the goo that helps mussels stick to things and then made their own glue based upon the molecules in this natural material. The secret sauce is a molecule called DOPA which is an amino acid (one of the building blocks of proteins) and that is what makes the mussel glue so strong. The mussel-based glue even works underwater (well of course).